The Friday night lights were turned on for the last time for the departing senior members of the 2014 Mustang football team. This team is ending a season of unusual occurrences and still had one more challenge in front of them.
The team began their season with a small number of players putting on the new uniforms and limited experience in the lineman available for action. The opening game was delayed 24 hours due to lightning flashes and the Princeton Tigers ended a multi-year losing streak at the expense of the Mustangs. This was followed by a home game that ended in a triple overtime loss to the Orion Chargers. A loss to arch rival Fulton and then a visit from the #1 ranked Newman Comets continued their season. The offense stalled and didn’t score again until the last play of the Bureau Valley game three weeks later.
Losses to Rockridge and Erie Prophetstown set up the situation for Senior Night as the winless Riverdale Rams came to visit the winless Mustangs with nothing on the line but Pride. Joey Brackemyer returned the opening kickoff to the Ram’s 22-yard line, but two penalties on the next four snaps killed the drive on the 19-yard line, and the Rams took possession on downs. The Rams marched down to the Mustang 28-yard line with the aid of a 48-yard pass completion from freshman quarterback Kelan Dickson to Andrew Goodman. Triston Houzenga ended the drive on the 1-yard line as he intercepted the first of his four pass interceptions on the night. Each team had two more possession in the quarter but were unable to gain any momentum.
The Mustangs first possession of the second quarter opened the scoring when Brackemyer found room on an end run and skirted the left sideline to find the endzone 54-yard later.The Mustangs led 6-0 with 9:10 left in the half. Apparent confusion on the extra point ended with Brackemyer being stopped on the 2-yard line. The ensuing kickoff left the fans scratching their heads as the kick only went forward five yards, the spin took it backwards, and the Rams fell on it at the Morrison 47-yard line. Ten plays later, Dickson covered the last three yards into the end zone to tie the game with 5:08 remaining in the half. Cole Ebenroth kicked the extra point to earn the 7-6 advantage.